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South African Black Trade Unions as an Emerging Working-Class Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Anthony W. Marx
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Extract

The Recent resumption of popular protest signals a new phase in South Africa's internal opposition, characterised notably by the rising political engagement of black labour unions and their federations. Membership in these unions has reached over a million workers, reflecting the dramatic expansion of South Africa's industrial manufacturing sector in the last 20 years. With severe restrictions placed on the leading national and local political organisations since 1985, the unions have developed beyond their initially narrow concerns for their members into the forefront of opposition to established economic and political order. As a result, class consciousness and working-class organisation have increasingly been combined with, and taken precedence over, previous conceptions of opposition based on racial and national identity. This development has exacerbated both remaining ideological divisions and pressures for united action within the union movement.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , September 1989 , pp. 383 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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